


No Sunshine When He's Gone

by MiraMira



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: F/M, Female Protagonist, Funeral, Grief, Minor Character Death, One Shot, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-01
Updated: 2010-06-01
Packaged: 2017-10-09 20:36:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/91347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiraMira/pseuds/MiraMira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A funeral was no place for yellow.  Even Cedric's.  Especially Cedric's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Sunshine When He's Gone

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Hogwarts_Elite.

A funeral was no place for yellow. Even Cedric's. Especially Cedric's. Without it, Cho could have pretended that the gravestone at the top of the hill belonged to somebody else. But the scarves around his housemates' necks despite the warm summer weather put her in mind of the last Quidditch match they'd played against each other and how she'd admired his composure as the game wore on, his strong grip as he shook her hand afterwards. The flowers at the tomb and the dandelions at her feet reminded her of the ones they'd picked together, her playing "he loves me, he loves me not" while he charmed extra petals into place to make certain the result came out in his favor. Even the sunshine echoed the glints in his hair that had never failed to momentarily entrance her. Everything she saw only seemed to amplify his absence: made her forget where she was and look for him, only to find empty space beside her.

She wondered again whether she ought to go and talk to Mr. and Mrs. Diggory. She'd exchanged a few uneasy glances with them throughout the service, but no words yet. They must have known she'd been Cedric's date for the Yule Ball, but she wasn't sure how much else he had told them about her. Would it comfort them to know someone else's heart was as broken as theirs?

"Sherbert lemon?" an airy, vaguely familiar voice behind her piped up. She turned and stared. "Loony" Lovegood, dressed in bright yellow, was holding something out to her. "Headmaster Dumbledore calls them the best cure for melancholy. They keep the Wrackspurts away, too."

Cho took the sweet hesitantly. _What are you doing here?_, she meant to ask, but what came out was, "What are you wearing?"

"Father felt that sun colors might help counterbalance any dark emanations," said Luna, sounding neither surprised nor offended. "They're best for weddings, of course, but as we didn't have time to shop for other dress robes…"

_Weddings. Merlin._ Cho gave a tiny, strangled cry as a new set of visions assailed her. Cedric, seen through gauze, waiting for her at the end of a long aisle strewn with roses. A little cottage, not unlike the one he'd shown her in the photo of his parents he'd kept by his bedside. Children's laughter mingled with theirs.

_Remember Cedric_, Dumbledore had said, and Cho had, fervently. She had thought it was to preserve her memories. Now, she realized, it had been to avoid those that could never be.

"You know," she heard Luna say, "it works much better if you eat it."

"Leave me alone!" Cho shouted and flung the candy to the ground, before giving herself over completely to tears.

She had no idea whether Luna complied. She barely even heard the approaching footsteps until she smelled a powdery perfume like her mother's and felt soft arms around her and heard Mrs. Diggory's voice. "Poor girl."

Cho clung to her and cried harder.


End file.
